Panaji: Amplifying its protest against the 'lavish' bash planned here by the BJP to celebrate Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's birthday on Sunday, the Congress today sought 'intervention' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dissuade the state leadership from going ahead with the event.

A delegation of state Congress leaders today handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi, seeking Modi's intervention, said Goa Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sunil Kawthankar.

"When the country is facing a national crisis on account of Chennai floods, which has killed hundreds and rendered thousands homeless, and with the increased tension at the international border with Pakistan, the Goa State BJP leaders are organising a mega birthday celebration of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in the presence of Union ministers Rajnathingh and Nitin Gadkari", Kawthankar said in the memorandum.

It said the state BJP leaders are bent on going ahead with the programme despite the Congress' appeal to call off the function.

The opposition party had demanded that the money to be spent on the event be donated to victims of Chennai floods. However, the BJP had justified the move, saying the bash is in fact the much-delayed public felicitation of the former Chief Minister after he was elevated as Defence Minister.